Collingham - Curry: a Tale of Cooks and Conquerors

LIZZIE COLLINGHAM

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This imaginative book tells the history of India and its rulers through their food. It follows the story of curry as it spread from the courts of Delhi to the balti houses of Birmingham.

Curry is the product of Indias long history of invasion. In the wake of the Mughal conquerors, an army of cooks brought Persian recipes to northern India; in the south, Portugese spice merchants introduced vinegar marinades and the chillies they had recently discovered in the New World; the British soon followed, with their passion for roast meat accompanied by cauliflowers and beans. When these new ingredients were mixed with native spices, they produced those disinctly Inidan dishes.

Curry tells the story of an array of familar Indian dishes and the people who invented, discovered, cooked and ate them. Teeming with colourful characters, rich in anecdote and meticulously researched, Curry is vivid, entertaining and delicious.

Lizzie Collingham taught history at the University of Warwick before becoming a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. She is the author of Imperial Bodies: the physical experience of the Raj, c. 18001947. Now a freelance scholar and writer, she has lived in Sweden, Germany, Australia and France, but is still looking for a place to settle.

Illustrations in the text

I: (Kashmir, 185060), Oriental and India Office Collections, Add.Or.1681

II: (early 16th century), Oriental and India Office Collections, P859

III: in Pieter van den Broecke, Korte Historiael ende Journaelsche Aenteckyeninghe (Amsterdam, 1634), British Library, 10095.aaa.49

IV: in Charles DOyly, The European in India (London, 1813), plate VII, Oriental and India Office Collections, W625

V: in Joseph Edmunds, Curries and How to Prepare Them. Recipes by some of the most eminent chefs de cuisine, including E. Francatelli... and C. H. Senn (London, 1903)

VI: George Franklin Atkinson, Curry and Rice on Forty Plates; or the Ingredients of Social Life at Our Station in India (2nd edn, London, 1859), Oriental and India Office Collections, W2868

VII: (1920s), Bourne and Shepherd, Oriental and India Office Collections, Photo 703/(5)

VIII: , private collection

IX: (2001), private collection

Colour sections

1: (1507), Oriental and India Office Collections, Or.3714, f.260b

2: Oriental and India Office Collections, Or.3714, f.6b

3: (c.1595), Oriental and India Office Collections. J.16,6

4: (1999), private collection

5: (1980s), private collection

6: (c.1831), Oriental and India Office Collections, Add.Or.2599

7: (Kashmir, 185060), Oriental and India Office Collections, Add.Or.1687

8: (1980s), private collection

9: (1996), Jeremy Horner/CORBIS

10: in George Franklin Atkinson, Curry and Rice on Forty Plates; or the Ingredients of Social Life at Our Station in India (2nd edn, London, 1859), Oriental and India Office Collections, W2868

11: (182021), Oriental and India Office Collections, Add.Or.4921

12: (1930s), private collection

13: (Bangalore, 19014), Higginbothams, Oriental and India Office Collections, Photo 494/(37)

14: (c.1880), W. W. Hooper, Oriental and India Office Collections, Photo 447/3(56)

15: William Tayler, Sketches Illustrating the Manners and Customs of the Indians and Anglo-Indians (London, 1842), Oriental and India Office Collections, X42

16: (1996), Catherine Karnow/CORBIS

(1990s), private collection

18: (1901), Robert Arthur Ellis, Oriental and India Office Collections, Photo 304/53

19: Edward Hilder Colebrook (1940), Oriental and India Office Collections, Photo 469/5 (44)

20: (1990s), private collection

21: (1970s), private collection

22: (1930s), private collection

23: (1980s), private collection

24: (1990s), private collection

25: (1980s), private collection

26: (2001), private collection

Endpapers

The interior of Veeraswamys (1920s), private collection

Picture credits

The author and publishers are grateful for the following:

Plates Corbis.

Maps drawn by Reginald Piggott

A note on the recipes.

The recipes which readers might like to try are to be found at the end of each chapter. These are recipes which I use myself. I hope they will produce tasty results in your kitchen. Indians cooking in their own homes adjust the quantities of spices to suit their own tastes: some cooks use as many as twenty chillies when making a vindaloo, others just three or four. You should feel free to adjust the quantities to suit your preferences.

An Indian friend from South Africa once gave me a helpful tip which has improved my Indian cookery: when frying onions, garlic, ginger or spices always wait until the raw smell of the foods has disappeared before going on to the next stage of the cooking process.

I have also included some historical recipes in the body of the text to give a sense of what these recipes were like. Some of them might be interesting to cook, although I do not suggest experimenting with roast black rat.